Getting into the Scene

How does one get into local underground concerts? I want the intimacy and rush of small concerts.
House concerts ideally.

Ask any one you know that plays music. There are several bars that also act as venues for local bands.

Join a band. Make lots of connections. Git gud.

it probably depends where youre from. different areas have different types of venues so i cant speak for everything. just living in the city and associating with other musicians and stuff and playing in bands and living in a house venue got me in. idk exactly where i first entered. probably just show up to some cool local band shows at more above ground venues. meetign people who go to shows or in venues and youll hear of other shows.

In a lot of ways it's all about being a good human being. Talk with musicians, luthiers, fb groups, etc.

I found some cool people by looking bands around my town on bandcamp. Remember, you do not have to like their music. Just be their friend.

Honestly you need to make an album that people like. After that it all sorta clicks (on top of joining FB groups, messaging bands, forming connections, etc).

t. someone who's had moderate local success and has played 30-50 local shows the past year

Literally the only rule to get started is to not be trash, musically or as a human being. Get a band together, put together a solid set's worth of charts. It's not too hard to find local venues and events, find out who runs them and start messaging/emailing them with your name and some of your group's work. When you actually get a gig or two, you should have no problem netting more unless you're just shitty to be around. Keep tabs on your power level, this extends to anything in the arts not just music. Sup Forumsfaggotry or other forms of autism will get you blacklisted so fast your head will spin. If you're not an autist and your project plays good then anywhere you play you're bound to have one or two people coming up to you after your set, someone who knows someone, owns their own venue/studio, etc., which will lead to more gigs.

This. I'm a total Sup Forumsfag but I had to learn to keep that shit on the EXTREME down low. Hell, even having moderate support for a totally reasonable policy which is not a social policy but somewhat connected to Donald Trump will get you backlisted.

It's autistic as fuck, but the majority of dudes who orchestrate their respective scenes are close minded, soystrung nu-males so you gotta respect their shittyness

house shows have sort of died out where I'm from, which is sad. we used to have shoegaze, punk, grindcore, etc house shows all the time but now it's like 99% venues. Or maybe i just fell out of touch with that scene

It's relatively easy to get around if you're not an actual autist, though. I don't think I've been to one gig where everyone was circlejerking about the latest Drumpf decision or anything like that, usually when you're hanging and playing with these people it's more about the music and life in general than politics. If conversation ever does lean that way it's simple enough to just go "oh, I don't follow politics that much" or just keep quiet

Yeah that's exactly what I do and it's worked for the most part, whenever they go into politics I keep my mouth shut.

It's just the social media aspect which is the hardest - nearly everyone who is an important part to my local scene is extremely flamboyant and shares political/anti-trump shit on FB daily. I don't say anything but I know for me that it's very important that I watch what I share or even comment/like on.

That's getting harder to do with the recent "with us or against us" or "silence is acceptance" attitude these fucks have. I find myself defending policies that I don't even agree with just because these people are so insufferable.

I use a sock account for anything I wouldn't want to put my real name behind. Keeping a disconnect between politics/internet things in general and my real life has kept me and my band out of trouble professionally, and I think has helped me in seeing my peers as people and not just "those goddamned leftists" all the time.

How do I deal with this if I have actual autism that prevents me from talking to a lot of people out of social fear. I mean, I made friends with a few people in a local scene a few months back but that was in another city and it was through massive luck

Yeah I thought about doing that but I feel as though having a fake account is just a hassle and honestly, i'd rather be liked for who I am than pretend to be someone i'm not (as cliche as that sounds).

Yeah exactly. Honestly this kind of shit has pushed me away from local scenes and has me aiming for bigger and better things beyond all the insufferable pricks. Truthfully, you want your music to ideally appeal to more than just your social circle anyway (if you want to actually be successful and do this for a living).

If you're not good with talking to a lot of people, you'll have more luck playing in someone else's band than trying to run and promote your own. As a member you'll probably still be expected to keep an eye out for gigs but the main mouth/PR job will fall on the band's leader and not you, so the amount of talk you'll personally need to do is drastically lessened.

It's a throwaway email and an extra login lad, not that much hassle to ensure you're not accidentally liking or sharing something that would trigger your peers.

I guess, but I don't know. Maybe they should learn to accept that people have differing opinions and that alright, so don't be so insufferable.

>playing in someone else's band than trying to run and promote your own
>someone else
This is the problem, finding that is very hard

Politics have become so autistic and both of the "sides" have zero sense of self-awareness. The less you worry about that bullshit and stop having it be one of your main personality traits, the easier of a time you're going to have, especially if you're trying to make it in the arts.

Exactly and I have tried to disconnect myself from it all. The point i'm making is that i'm tired of having every musician think they're MLK by sharing autistic bullshit non stop on social media and blackmailing someone who does not share anything related to politics or tags their friends in the occasional Trump post on for giggles - because that's literally the climate of my local scene and my experience in it.

Hell, we got a shout out in the new releases segment from the biggest station in town (which is a major city), and even they gave us a snarky remark for not using our platform as a voice for politics. "yadayada although the music is great, I will say (not trying to project my sociopolitcal outlook), that scrolling through their facebook page they seem to not exactly take public stances on issues of the day, instead preferring to instead push gigs and channel their emotion into the music"

Like nigga what. That's the whole fucking point of being of running a band you dumb fuck

I would look at local venues like dive bars and then see who's on the lineup. From there look bands up on bandcamp and see what you like and follow them on social media. Most bands post about local shows they're playing, but they often need you to message them for an address.